While Looking for PLANET X Astronomers Discover Two NEW Moons Around Jupiter
The advent of monster telescopes equipped with super-sensitive, wide-field detectors has been a boon for astronomical discoveries, among them a bevy of tiny moonlets around the outer planets. For example, observations made from 2000 to 2003 yielded 46 moons around Jupiter — more than two-thirds of the planet’s total! Now astronomer Scott Sheppard (Carnegie Institution for Science) has added two … Continue reading
NASA Discovers Strange, Deep Hole on the South Pole of Mars; Unable to Explain It
You’d think NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has seen everything there is to see on the Martian surface in the 11 years it’s orbited our nearest neighbour, but a snapshot taken over the planet’s South Pole has revealed something we can’t explain. While the planet’s entire surface is pocked with various depressions and craters, a vast pit spotted among the … Continue reading
Citizen Scientists Discover New ‘World’ Near Sun
A new citizen-science tool released earlier this year to help astronomers pinpoint new worlds lurking in the outer reaches of our solar system has already led to a discovery: a brown dwarf a little more than 100 light years away from the Sun. Just six days after the launch of the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 website in February, four different … Continue reading
Results of Egyptian Mummy DNA Analysis Revealed
The DNA results offer important clues about Egypt’s past. Scientists have revealed the results of a recent study in to the DNA of 151 ancient Egyptian mummies. The remains, which were unearthed at the ancient burial site of Abusir el-Meleq along the west bank of the lower Nile River, date back from around 1400 B.C. to 400 A.D. Acquiring genetic … Continue reading
New Research Shows That Time Travel Is Mathematically Possible
BENDING TIME Even before Einstein theorized that time is relative and flexible, humanity had already been imagining the possibility of time travel. In fact, science fiction is filled with time travelers. Some use metahuman abilities to do so, but most rely on a device generally known as a time machine. Now, two physicists think that it’s time to bring the time … Continue reading
Microsoft Planning to Store Its Data on DNA in The Next 3 Years
If we used DNA like we use magnetic tape to store data today, it’s theoretically possible to store all of the information humans have ever recorded in a space roughly the size of a double garage. Sharing their goals with MIT Technology Review this week, Microsoft Research computer architects say they want to start storing their data on strands of … Continue reading
Quasars Help Astronomers Create the Largest Map of the Universe Yet
Astronomers with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) have created the first map of the large-scale structure of the Universe based entirely on the positions of quasars. Quasars are the incredibly bright and distant points of light powered by supermassive black holes. “Because quasars are so bright, we can see them all the way across the Universe,” said Ashley Ross … Continue reading
Sudden Disappearance of Star Perplexes Scientists
A giant star named N6946-BH1, which American astronomers have observed for several years, has suddenly disappeared, NASA’s website wrote, referring to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The specialists don’t know the exact reasons behind the disappearance of the star. The most probable hypothesis is that the star has turned into a black hole. The scientists, who observed … Continue reading
‘Molecular Black Hole’ Created in Lab by Using Incredibly Powerful X-Ray Laser
California physicists fired the most powerful x-ray laser ever constructed at an iodine molecule, tearing the molecule apart in the process – and briefly causing the iodine molecule to exhibit black hole-esque behavior. The team used Stanford University’s LCLS x-ray laser at the SLAC National Accelerator Observatory. The beam packs unimaginable power: it uses a two-mile-long linear accelerator to generate … Continue reading
Human Brain Finds it Difficult to Handle Stripes
Do these striped pants make my butt look fat? No, but that may make someone’s head hurt at the migraine level and could even cause an epileptic seizure. A new study in Current Biology found that simple vertical lines can cause headache-inducing brain activity even in healthy people and could induce migraines or seizures in those with photosensitive epilepsy. Is … Continue reading
